Linen-drying cabinet, more particularly for clothing, linen and the like

ABSTRACT

A drying cabinet for articles of apparel, linen and the like is disclosed, which comprises a foraminous drum intended to retain the articles to be dried, said drum being arranged for rotation about its axis which is horizontally disposed; the drum being rotatingly supported by a front set of rollers and a rear set of rollers which frictionally engage portions of the drum periphery. Preferably, the drum is provided with circumferential guiding means to prevent axial displacements thereof. The drum is driven by means of said rear set of rollers which are provided with a knurled sheath of resilient material, the rear set of rollers being actuated by the intermediary of a belt and pully drive which also drives an exhaust means for venting spent hot air from the drying cabinet. A gas burner and a blower are provided to circulate hot air in the interior of the cabinet and in an axial direction with respect to the drum. The gas burners may be provided with piezoelectric firing means.

Unite States atet inventor Appl. No. Filed Patented Assignee Priority LINEN-DRYING CABINET, MORE PARTICULARLY FOR CLOTHING, LINEN AND THE LIKE 6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs.

U.S. Cl 263/33 B,

34/108 Int. Cl F27b 7/10 Field of Search 34/ l 08,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1968 Curtis 34/126 X Primary Examiner-J0hn .l. Camby All0rney-H0lman & Stern ABSTRACT: A drying cabinet for articles of apparel, linen and the like is disclosed, which comprises a foraminous drum intended to retain the articles to be dried, said drum being arranged for rotation about its axis which is horizontally disposed; the drum being rotatingly supported by a front set of rollers and a rear set of rollers which frictionally engage portions of the drum periphery. Preferably, the drum is provided with circumferential guiding means to prevent axial displacements thereof. The drum is driven by means of said rear set of rollers which are provided with a knurled sheath of resilient material, the rear set of rollers being actuated by the intermediary of a belt and pully drive which also drives an exhaust means for venting spent hot air from the drying cabinet,

A gas burner and a blower are provided to circulate hot air in the interior of the cabinet and in an axial direction with respect to the drum. The gas burners may be provided with piezoelectric firing means.

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SHEET 3 BF 3 INVENTOR 702219 BYMMM A M V ATTORNEYS LINEN-DRYING CABINET, MORE PARTICULARLY FOR CLUIHING, LINEN AND THE LIKE This invention relates to a device for drying articles of apparel, more particularly of a commercial type, having a rotatable drum in which the articles to be dried are loaded.

The conventional drying devices generally comprise a cabinetlike container in which a cylindrical drum is housed, rotatable about a horizontal axis and having a foraminous wall. The linen is introduced in the drum through a door placed in the front of the container.

In the lower portion of the cabinet, a blower in installed which causes hot air to be circulated causing it to flow through the foraminous drum. A single motor is provided to control the rotation of the drum and the blower, by means of belt drives with sheaves. Air heating for drying linen is preferably effected by gas burners with the intermediary of appropriate heat exchangers.

The conventional drying devices are aflected by a number of drawbacks, particularly as regards the supporting and guiding means for the drum. Usually, the drum is overhangingly supported by a shaft which rotates on a crosslike member affixed to the rear wall of the containing cabinet. In such a case, a large and costly sizing of the supporting members (shaft, bearings) is necessary due to the considerable weight of the drum with its full load.

Supporting and controlling assemblies with rollers have also been suggested, but this approach has proven to be unsatisfactory hitherto. As a matter of fact, it requires a constructional arrangement which is more intricate, in addition to particular expedients to ensure a guided rotation of the drum, devoid of any axial shifts.

Another trouble encountered when making an overhanging shaft for the rotation and support of the drum, lies in that the axial feed of the drying hot air is difiicult and can be assured only with special and intricate arrangements.

These and other drawbacks and difficulties, only briefly sketched out in the foregoing, are done away with by the drying cabinet according to the present invention, which comprises a fixed cabinet and a foraminous drum, rotatable about its own axis and having a window for loading, which corresponds to the loading door for the articles to be dried, characterized in that, for supporting and rotating the drum, there are provided a first set of at least two rollers in engagement with the outer surface of the drum, and a second set of at least two rollers engaging the rear outer surface of the drum, motive means are provided for driving at least one set of the aforesaid rollers, said rollers being arranged symmetrically with respect to the drum, and circumferential guiding means for said drum so as to prevent any axial shifting thereof.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the motive means actuate, through an appropriate drive transfer mechanism, the rollers of the rear set, whereas the circumferential guide consists of a transversal groove formed in the front rollers and is engaged by a matching rib on the outer surface of the drying drum.

The objects and advantages of the present invention will become clearer from the ensuing disclosure of a preferred embodiment, having a merely exemplary, nonlimiting value, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an overall diagrammatical view in side elevation of the drying cabinet according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear elevational view of the cabinet of FIG. 1, and

FIGS. 3 and 4 are enlarged views up of the front and rear rollers, respectively.

As it can be clearly seen in the drawings, a cabinet is provided, in whose interior is fixedly mounted a housing for a drying drum 12, the drum walls being foraminous, and the drum being rotatable about its axis 13. The drum 12 is a cylindrical body open at both ends and its walls have perforations of an appropriate diameter and spaced apart by an appropriate distance as is well known in the appertaining art in order to obtain the desired drying action. The front end of the drum 12 is closed by a door 40, the latter being properly hinged to the cabinet 10, and is intended for loading and unloading the articles to be dried. The rear end of the drum 12 has an annular rim flange 22 and is closed by a foraminous disc 23; this is rigidly affixed to the container 11. Hot air for drying is fed axially into the drum 12 through the disc 23 and reaches, through a conveying duct 27, from the uppermost portion of the cabinet 10. In this space, horizontal gas burners 24 are mounted, equipped with firing devices 25, preferably of the piezoelectric type. Air enters the cabinet 10 through the inlet port 26 and is heated as it enters, after passing through the drum 12, is radially guided towards the exterior of the drum and is conveyed, by suction, to a filter 28 and therefrom to an exhauster 29 driven by the motor 31 of the drying cabinet, and is finally discharged into the atmosphere through a port 30.

It is apparent that the motion of the drying air is due to the sucking action of the exhauster 29, which thus should have an appropriate power, also to overcome the pressure drops as mainly due to passing through the drum 12 and the articles to be dried contained therein.

The drum 12, in the example illustrated, is supported for rotation by sets of two rollers each, both frontally and rearwardly, as depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4, respectively.

Considering firstly the FIGS. 2 and 4, the set of the rear rollers comprise two rollers 32, mounted symmetrically with respect to the vertical plane which contains the axis 13 of the drum 12, and whose mark on the sheet of the drawing FIG. 2 is shown at 41. Each roller 32 comprises a robust core portion 42, lined by a sheath 43, the latter being knurled on the outer surface, and made of a resilient material such as l'lypalonfi adapted to ensure the friction which is required to engage the outer surface of the drum 12 which contacts the sheath and rests thereagainst. The pin 38 on which the rollers 32 are overhangingly mounted, are the same about which are keyed the respective sheaves 34: these are driven to rotation by a motor 31 through the belt 37, the driving sheave 33 and the idle pulley 36.

To mount the pins 38 on the cabinet frame, corresponding cross-shaped members 39 are provided. The front sets of rol lers 17 (FIG. 3) are mounted so as to rotate freely about pivots 19 with the intermediary of bearings 18. The pins 19, in turn, are mounted on supporting members 20 and the latter are fastened to a rolled section 21 affixed to the inner wall of the cabinet 10. Also for the rollers 17 an externally knurled sheath of a resilient material is provided. The rollers 17 are arranged in the same symmetrical array as the rear rollers 32 with respect to the vertical plane 41 (FIG. 2). In its front portion, the drum 12 has a circular flange 14 (FIG. 3) attached thereto by a folded seam so as to fonn a projecting bead 15: the latter engages a groove 16 formed transversally of the rollers 17.

It is thus clear that the drum 12 is free to be rotated about its axis 13, but is prevented from undergoing any axial displacements.

It should also be observed that the rear rollers 32, even though they are mounted in a cantilever fashion, should bear a force which is much smaller than that the overhangingly mounted shafts according to the conventional techniques had to support. In addition, the approach consisting of the projecting bead 15 and groove 16 is not a limitation, inasmuch as anyone skilled in the art can readily envisage equivalent solutions.

The principal advantages of the present invention can be briefly summarized as follows:

a simpler and more reliable control of the rotation of the drum, since the drum is barely placed to rest against rollers and can be mounted and overhauled with extreme simplicity. In addition, during the rotation of the drum, any potentially dangerous and detrimental axial displacements are prevented.

savings in motive power for driving the drum, on account of the cheaper and wiser dimensioning of the supporting members therefor.

a reduced bulk in the vertical direction for the whole device due to the horizontal arrangement of the burners which are equipped with piezoelectric firing appliances, so as to permit remote control and to ensure a greater reliability and cleannessi an improved thermal efficiency since the path of hot air is such as to feed the drum with air having a uniform temperature, which is also low enough as not to damage the articles being dried.

it is understood that the foregoing disclosure is given by way of example only and without any implied limitation, a number of modifications and changes being possible, both from the conceptual and mechanical standpoint, without departing from the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry drying cabinet of the hot air circulating type wherein a foraminous drum having at least an end opening to load articles to be dried is arranged in said cabinet, for rotation about its axis which is horizontally disposed, the improvement comprising, a first and second set of rollers, one set each disposed adjacent either end of said drum to rotatingly support said drum on its periphery; knurled sheaths of resilient plastic material provided on at least one set of said sets of rollers; and means to rotate the foraminous drum through said sheathed set of rollers which are in turn driven by an intermediary of a belt and pulley drive which also drives an exhaust means for venting spent hot air.

2. A drying cabinet according to claim 1, characterized in that said drum is open at its rear end and has a closure disc with perforations and solidly afiixed to the cabinet wall, the drying hot air being fed through said disc axially in the interior of the drum.

3. A drying cabinet according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of air-heating gas burners located in an upper portion of the cabinet and positioned horizontally.

4. A drying cabinet according to claim 3, characterized in that it comprises piezoelectric firing means for said gas burners.

5. The drying cabinet as in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said rollers are mounted on pins which are cantilevered from walls of said cabinet.

6. The drying cabinet as in claim 5 wherein said drum is formed with circumferential guiding means at an end thereof which engages in operation a complementarily shaped peripheral formation in the nearest of said sets of rollers thereby preventing axial displacements of the foraminous drum in both directions. 

1. A laundry drying cabinet of the hot air circulating type wherein a foraminous drum having at least an end opening to load articles to be dried is arranged in said cabinet, for rotation about its axis which is horizontally disposed, the improvement comprising, a first and second set of rollers, one set each disposed adjacent either end of said drum to rotatingly support said drum on its periphery; knurled sheaths of resilient plastic material provided on at least one set of said sets of rollers; and means to rotate the foraminous drum through said sheathed set of rollers which are in turn driven by an intermediary of a belt and pulley drive which also drives an exhaust means for venting spent hot air.
 2. A drying cabinet according to claim 1, characterized in that said drum is open at its rear end and has a closure disc with perforations and solidly affixed to the cabinet wall, the drying hot air being fed through said disc axially in the interior of the drum.
 3. A drying cabinet according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of air-heating gas burners located in an upper portion of the cabinet and positioned horizontally.
 4. A drying cabinet according to claim 3, characterized in that it comprises piezoelectric firing means for said gas burners.
 5. The drying cabinet as in claim 1 which is further characterized in that said rollers are mounted on pins which are cantilevered from walls of said cabinet.
 6. The drying cabinet as in claim 5 wherein said drum is formed with circumferential guiding means at an end thereof which engages in operation a complementarily shaped peripheral formation in the Nearest of said sets of rollers thereby preventing axial displacements of the foraminous drum in both directions. 